Anyone use Progressive Car Insurance?

[Linzybrooke]

DH and I are looking to switch to Progressive. They quoted us a rate that is half what we currently pay, but do we get the same level of customer service as with a larger company? Anyone use them and have any insight? What have been your experiences with claims and customer service?

Thanks,
Lin

 

[Aidensmom]

I've had them for six years (and I pay less now than the first year I had them), I have only had two small claims that were not our fault (both DH's parked vehicle and mine were ran into in parking lots on different ocassions), and the claims were processed quickly and smoothly.

ETA: I have done all customer service type things (replacing vehicles, paying my bill, etc) over the internet, which is very convenient.

 

[rt2dz]

I absolutely, positively HATE progressive. I would much, much rather pay more money than ever deal with them again.

We were hit by an uninsured motorist, got the run-a-round for months and then received a whole $200 for our $1500 worth of damage. This did NOT include the rental car either. I didn't want to use thier drop off service because you couldn't pick where your car went and a few of their shops had some very unreliable service centers on it. BBB even degraded these service shops.

About this time their was a thread on here about insuriance companies at the same time and come to find out someone from Progressive themselves said my experience was pretty standard. Getting Progressive to deal out quickly, when they have to pay out to you (generally) as the policy holder, is rare.

 

[Honu]

I got a quote from them last month before my renewal, but it was $820 more ($1640 per year) for less coverage than I have with 21st Century.

 

[rt2dz]

I got a quote from them last month before my renewal, but it was $820 more ($1640 per year) for less coverage than I have with 21st Century.

That's who we have now, 21st century. Cheaper and better service.

 

[kbkids]

My experience with them was AWFUL!!! Never again. I was involved in an accident - it was my fault - long story, but their customer service is the pits!! They refused to pay for some of the damage on my vehicle because they said it wasn't caused by the accident. The car was 10 days old (yes, that really stunk), and the damage was obviously caused by the accident.

Then to top it off, the body shop called me and told me that they couldn't get them to return any phone calls to send the payment for the repairs they did authorize. I called the 800 number (the only number I had) to ask where to start, and they transferred me to the local rep. OMG!! I have never talked to anyone so rude in all my life. I told her that the body shop was trying to get ahold of someone to send the payment, and she immediately cuts me off and says "Well, they didn't call ME!" "Okay, so, I'm assuming you're the one that needs to get the phone call. Can you give me your direct line so they can call you?" No lie, here's her response - "Well, you dialed, didn't you??" I couldn't believe it. Our conversation ended at that point as I refused to deal with her anymore. Her manager apologized - but never again!!

I cancelled the policy and went to Allstate - by the way, who was almost $400 cheaper a year for our policy.

 

[mking624]

We've had them for over 7 years, love them!! They've been very helpful and easy to use.

We did get to use their roadside assistance this past Christmas Eve when our car broke down on the side of the highway on the way home from church. They were so friendly and helpful and the first thing they did was make sure we were in a safe place (I was the one who called and a man answered and he was concerned about my safety). Once he knew I was ok, he then took care of everything else and our tow truck was there in half an hour. We really do like them.

As far as rates are concerned, when we did comparison shopping, Progressive wound up being more expensive by a little bit only once. We figured it wasn't cost effective to switch back and forth between companies. We've decided, though, that if we ever do switch, it will never be with a company where you have your own rep (i.e. AllState). I've heard way too many horror stories of the company refusing to do anything unless you do it through your local rep...which can be a huge pain if your rep is unavailable. DH's coworker went through this with AllState recently after an accident...insurance guy needed to be there, but his local rep was out of town and AllState refused to do anything without the local rep present. I'm sure you can imagine the headaches he went through....and needless to say, he cancelled his policy with them.

 

[kbkids]

We've decided, though, that if we ever do switch, it will never be with a company where you have your own rep (i.e. AllState). I've heard way too many horror stories of the company refusing to do anything unless you do it through your local rep...which can be a huge pain if your rep is unavailable. DH's coworker went through this with AllState recently after an accident...insurance guy needed to be there, but his local rep was out of town and AllState refused to do anything without the local rep present. I'm sure you can imagine the headaches he went through....and needless to say, he cancelled his policy with them.

I wonder if it's something regional. We asked the body shop who they had the least problems with because we knew we were going to be changing to someone else. They said Allstate, State Farm, and Nationwide. He said they never questioned a thing and many times never sent an adjuster, just took the body shop's word for it. ???? We've had a claim since we switched to them - hit and run in a parking lot and had no problems at all. ????

 

[Cool-Beans]

Someone hit me from behind. Their progressive person came out to the scene and cut me a check for $800 on the spot if agreed to sign off that I wasn't going to sue or anything. I had a teeny-weeny scrape on my bumper!

Told them I didn't need the money, didn't care about the scrape, wasn't going to fix it. They gave it to me anyway, said they HAD to. I signed and that was that.

$800 for nothing. And the poor girl that hit me had her car front all crushed in.

 

[frndofpooh]

We had them for 6-7 years and always had good service. I think we had two accidents in that time, one was my fault and one was not, and they dealt with us very professionally. The only reason we switched was that our homeowner's policy was with another company and we could get a discount if we held both our auto and homeowner's policy within the same company.

 

[MrsKreamer]

Well I have them and love them in some areas and have had a minor issue in another. Let me just say that they were fabulous after Katrina. They kept us insured for three months after Katrina hit without expecting any payment(they did have to do this by law). After the three months was up I had expected them to want me to cough up the $1240 I owed them($310 a month x three months plus the fourth month's bill) byt they let me make payments. When I called to make the payments I was always offered the option to pay the next week..."Are you sure you can pay us this week?" "How is everything going?" "Are you getting back on your feet ok?" This was always a different customer service rep. I was floored that a company this big could be this nice. We did have other companies we dealt with after Katrina that were downright horrid.

Then my DH wrecked our car in July. The Progressive rep was out there right away and had DH towed to the nearest repair shop. But they messed up my AC (Louisiana in July!!!) when they fixed the car so I had to bring it back in for another 2 weeks. Progressive didn't want to give me rental, but b/c it was the repaiors shop's fault they had to, and I knew they had to... When we got our car back again the windsheild wiper fluid tubes were hooked up backwards...meaning when you press the fluid for the front windshield the water goes to the back windsheild and vice versa. I said forget and kept it that way. It was two different repair shops that made the mistakes.

But I cannot forget their kindness durring my hardship, so I overlooked it.

 

[Sosai X]

i've had them for about 5 years now.. great service, no problems when i had my accident.. and thanks for reminding me.. i need to pay my premium for this month... forgot it.. lol...

 

[powellrj]

DHs car with hit twice last year too while sitting in parking lots. Both times they were kids that just backed up without looking and hit the rear of his car.

Progressive called that afternoon and had his car in the repair shop the next morning with a rental car waiting. The car was ready in a couple of days and we never heard another word or had to make another phone call.

State Farm jerked him around. I know it took weeks to get the car done with lots of phone calls back and forth and he swore we would never have state farm anything. They tried to get out of paying for the rental car, that took more phone calls. All in all it was a bad experience.

 

[Linzybrooke]

Hmm...very mixed responses, which I guess I expected. Must do more research.

 

[Linzybrooke's DH]

What about Geico? Anything good/bad to report with them?

TIA!

-Chris

 

[PirateKitty]

I do not care for Progressive at all. When I first used them, the rates were great. When it came time for policy renewal, my rates had jumped more than $60 a month! When I called and asked why this rate had increased, as I have never been involved in an accident and I've never even had a ticket, their response was vague. I had to call 4 different people, and was eventually told it was due to the rates in the area I lived-there had apparently been an increase in accident claims by others. That made no sense to me whatsoever! Why would a good drivers rate increase because other people (that I don't even know) were in accidents??

I've had State Farm for 6 years now and I think they're fantastic. Never had a problem since I switched.

 

[Linzybrooke's DH]

We are currently with State Farm and they're not terrible. I did have an issue with them the last time I was in a wreck. The only real problem is that they're super expensive so we're shopping around. Looks like we can save quite a bit of money by going to Progressive or Geico, but what will we be giving up to save a few bucks?

Thanks for everyone's help!